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Tuesday, November 27, 2007

一日千秋

いち じつ せん しゅうichi jitsu sen shuu

Today on the Biennial Yo-ji, we've got some more 4kyuu kanji for you; read it as as it lays: one day thousand autumns.

I remember when I was working at 春、the sushi bar in New York, when I first realized how sometimes, a non-native speaker can speak more profoundly than a native speaker. As a native English speaker, I'm so good at the short-cuts, the easiest, basic, most efficient ways to say things, that I don't concern myself with my diction much. A poet and a language learner have that in common, I guess. They HAVE to agonize over word choice.

I was talking to Jorge, one of the busboys, and we were bitching about the time. And I said, "Man, this sucks. This day is DRAGGGGGGGGING."And he said, "Yes, ... the time... it becomes eternal."And Machida-san, the chef said "一日千秋。”*

Definition: 一日が千年にも長く感じられ気持ちどおしいこと。Translations:1. The time becomes eternal2. A seemingly endless stretch of time (implies impatience)

And today's real life example sentence comes once again from the Nirav himself, indisputable proof that sometimes non-native speakers can be more poetic than natives, especially considering the fact that the Japanese girl he said it to DID NOT KNOW WHAT IT MEANT!

例文：君がいないときは一日千秋みたいです。When you're not here, my heart collapses under the pressure of the bullshit that it pumps instead of blood.**

The video is of October, a Japanese U2 tribute band covering Unchained Melody. I dedicate it to you Nirav, and any other hopeless romantics out there (until I can figure out how to make the video start at the point I want it to, which according to google, I SHOULD be able to do, just save yourself the time and skip ahead to 5:25).

*This part of the conversation invented for purposes of segue.** VERY LOOSE TRANSLATION

Welcome to The Daily Yo-ji

We have tons of Japanese grammar and idiomatic expressions, as well as proverbs and trivia in our archived posts. Please check them out! For an explanation of the kinds of posting we're doing these days, see this post.

Contributors

Bobby Judo

Living and working in Saga-ken, Kyushuu, dedicated to one day passing the 1-kyuu JLPT, and therefore being able to start on some other languages as well. Check out his Youtube Channel by clicking the picture!

Brett Staebell (Defendership)

While questing in the Rocky Mountains - only hours away from Denver, his birthplace and home - Brett discovered a magical talisman that whisked him halfway around the world to the remote island of Kyushu. Now hellbent on either finding a way home or a time machine that'll let him go back in time hundreds of years to hang out with samurai, he hones his language skills by posting on the Daily Yoji and sharpens his combat skills by pummeling the elementary school children he teaches.

Nirav Mehta (sqrtlsqd)

Nirav's only here because he's a friend. He's not really that good at Japanese, but go easy on him. He's sensitive.